Phantom Phamers of Jackson County

Don't forget about the rest of Oregon. We may have made the biggest ruckus over losing our right to decide if we wanted invasive plants growing here by the square mile, but we're no different than the rest of Oregon when it comes to gene modification. Of our food, and contamination of wild and domestic plants and the bees that are necessary for it all to work right. The following is an action alert that gives some of the arguments for and against GMOs. Keeping in mind that nobody knows the long term effects on us and the ecosystem.

Unbeknownst to most people, fishermen and their political allies, have decimated the normal fisheries. And not just by fishermen. Inland human activity like logging and dam building removed 10,000 miles of spawning habitat from the salmon's usual haunts in the Pacific Northwest alone. Let these biotech companies get their way, by any guise or campaign financing, and beware. And I sure wouldn't want to be the politician who enabled them when judgement day comes for them. Medford's own Sal Esquivel sponsored the original Oregon 'Monsanto Protection Act.' Dennis Richardson voted against keeping GMO canola out of the Willamette Valley. Now he's running for governor. Where is he going to get the money to come from a virtually unknown statewide to the Governor's office? And someone running for Medford City Council is on the Farm Bureau, a biotech lobbying group. Smells fishy to me.

I thought I had heard that some committee chair had snuck SB 633 into the funding package for this upcoming Special Session of the Oregon Legislature and not the Governor. And I thought it was weird when one of our favorite GMO cheerleading politicians said he couldn't meet with his constituents because he had a meeting with my group at the exact same time. The Phantom Pharmers didn't even tell me they were connected to my blogging or me. Heck, I didn't know they existed. Well this could be fodder for that production company that contacted me for regular people to be in a reality show. Non-people would be a cool twist in the reality show craze. They are always looking for a new angle. Wow, they could be implicated in the mysterious destruction of local GMO sugar beets, slipping in some GM wheat seed in Eastern Oregon, and more recently in Washington State. This could be bigger than 'The Invisible Man' series.

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Dear John

Some of you asked about the petition I referred to in my last email. You actually received that email because you previously have signed it.  But if you want to send it to others via email or social media , here is the link

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-sb633-save-local?mailing_id=15463&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=5407164

Here is the latest.  Oregon Governor Kitzhaber's "Vision" for the future of Oregon in the  special session he has called on Sept. 30 includes a cynical attempt to give corporate bio-tech companies control of agriculture in the State by including SB633 and denying you your rights to act via citizen's initiative - your only recourse when the government won't act on a serious problem. SB633 preempts citizen initiatives on "seed-related matters" (GMOs).

The other day I asked you to call and write Kitzhaber to post your opposition to SB633. Today I'm asking that you post your opposition on his social media pages if you use Facebook or twitter

Kitzhaber's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/johnkitzhaber
His Twitter tag is @GovKitz
Post your opposition to 633 there and then if you haven't called yet. Let the governor know you wan't stand for this give-away of your rights to have a say in your local agricultural economy

You can also find the Facebook and Twitter tags for your local reps easily, send them a message too.

And if you haven't done it yet all AND write to Governor Kitzhaber's office 503-378-4582,   be sure to say you want a response and/or send him an electronic message at
http://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/ShareYourOpinion.aspx

Also Call your State Representatives and Senators   http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/

Here's some additional information you can use .

 The lobby group Oregonians for Food And Shelter (OFS) and Oregon Farm Bureau are the sponsors for SB633. If you ever wondered who they are here's some members of the OFS Board.

·       Michael Diamond, Monsanto Company

·       Debbie Ego, Rasmussen Spray Service

·       Danelle Farmer, Syngenta Crop Protection

·       Rick Krohn, Pacific NW Aerial Applicators Alliance

·       Kent Pittard, DuPont

 Oregon Farm Bureau's Political Action Committee (PAC) receives major funding from biotech firms Monsanto and Syngenta. Who pays the piper calls the tune.

Here are some points you can make to counter SB633.

Biotech Corporations Say  - SB633 is not about whether or not agricultural seed is regulated, but rather where that regulation takes place.

Counterpoint - So what Oregonians for Food and Shelter the sponsor of this bill really means is that multi-national biotech corporations not local citizens should regulate farms in Oregon by their unregulated and cavalier planting of cross pollinating GMO crops? That's not surprising because Syngenta (Danelle Farmer) and Monsanto (Michael Diamond)  sit on the Board of OFS. The question is correct, but the answer is that the Feds, State and County refuse to deal with this issue and appear to be content to let Syngenta and Monsanto dictate that organic seed production and seed saving here is doomed and that Oregon wheat and alfalfa growers can kiss off their foreign export markets.

Biotech Corporations Say  - Local counties and municipalities are not technically or financially equipped to regulate agricultural crops.
Counterpoint How so? Jackson and Umatilla Counties, both have local ag ordinances, in fact Measure 15-119, the GMO crop ban measure  in Jackson County  is modeled directly on Jackson County's existing pear orchard ordinance.

Biotech Corporations Say  - USDA, EPA, and the FDA, currently regulate GE plants and have access to the needed expertise on the issue.
Counterpoint - None of these entities care about or deal with  GMO contamination and its deleterious effects on markets that rely on customers that don't want them. Washington alfalfa growers are on their own as USDA has washed their hands of any deregulated crop. Can't sell your wheat to Asia? Tough beans Farmer John

Biotech Corporations Say  - The cost of discovery, development and authorization of a new plant biotechnology trait introduced between 2008 and 2012 was $136 million, and takes an average of 13.1 years to make it from discovery to commercial market.
Counterpoint - So? Traditional breeding techniques in land grant colleges deliver as many or more useful traits, but public funding is drying up.

Biotech Corporations Say  - ODA has the plant scientists expertise to determine if additional Oregon specific regulations are needed.
Counterpoint So that is why ODA tried to jam canola into the Willamette Valley? Some expertise, it smells more like bias to me. It took the legislature to force the issue. Hardly a stellar track record on that score. ODA has no charter to deal with contentiousness between organic and GMO means of production.

Biotech Corporations Say  - Different restrictions on seeds in different counties and municipalities creates a regulatory nightmare for growers, manufacturers, distributors, and local governments.
Farmers could potentially face new regulations from 36 counties and over 400 cities in Oregon.
Counterpoint - Oh come on, how many Counties are going to do this? California has a whopping three Counties ten years after the first ban. California agriculture is not suffering. If citizen's in an Oregon County want GMOs, they just won't pass a ban.

Biotech Corporations Say  - Counties and cities lack the financial resources and expertise to enforce regulations on agricultural seed, and SB 633 will relieve them of this potential.
Counterpoint - This is unfounded speculation, how about some facts? What's the budget in Jackson and Umatilla Counties to enforce the two agricultural ordinances they already have in place. The answer?- next to nothing.

 Thank You for your help in this struggle.

Brian Comnes, Ashland Oregon

 

The Passing of Mary Ann Williman of Medford, Oregon

Even before my eyes popped open this morning at four o'clock I was conscious of a change in me. It was a desire and a blueprint to be a better man. A man of peace and reconciliation, of propriety and and love. I'm now fascinated with studying the different words different languages have for the word love, for example. I know that in Hebrew, there are many words for love, like filial love, and agape love. There are many others, just like there are thirteen words for love in the Polynesian language. Why do we only  have one word? The event that I'm thinking rocked my world is the passing of a great lady of Southern Oregon, Mary Ann Williman.

What was it about Mary Ann that her recent passing this month, September 2013, could have had such a profound effect. I doubt it was the uproarious great time that was had by her children, the children of her husband, Otto Williman, their children, and myself, by playing bunko the night of her funeral. Indeed we pledged to be a more cohesive family even though we are scattered along the entire West Coast and beyond. In comparing notes with one another, especially on events that transpired in just days leading up to the funeral, and especially the day of, we have to pause and reflect. I want to take this opportunity to reflect not on the life of Mary Ann, but on the effect she has had on the living and also on the great failing of our language, that we only have one name for that great mystery we only know as God. I think we need to clarify these things at every opportunity, it's important.

Mary Ann and Otto were more than just active in the AA movement. They were revered as pillars of the organization that changed so many hundreds of lives for the better. When Otto had his 50th anniversary celebration of the day he got sober there were over 500 people present in Medford to celebrate with him. There were over 250 people at Mary Ann's funeral yesterday. There wasn't even an announcement where or when the funeral was to be held. This is good stuff. If God is an old white haired guy sitting in the clouds, he would be clapping and tapping his foot. I very much doubt that is the case, but the family is convinced something good was expressed by the universe in her passing and as her body was being laid to rest.

The first inklings I got was when my wife, Otto's daughter Terry, and I were on watch with Otto when Mary Ann was in dire distress a week ago Sunday. I had snoozed in my chair as Mary Ann struggled for breath, succumbing to a tumor in her brain. I woke and pretty much fled for the door, begging to get home for some chores, leaving Terry, Eric, Mary Ann's youngest son, and Otto alone with their beloved wife and mother. Terry called me soon after and said that Mary Ann had passed. I have no idea what prompted me to such haste. It just wasn't natural is all I know. I am convinced that we are all connected in some way, the same way that prayers (there's another word that does injustice to such a mystery) can be effected even on the other side of the world.

Then Brian Benline, Mary Ann's oldest son, sent a correspondence about how many people in the past have noticed the discovery of dimes soon after the departure of a loved one. Brian started finding dimes in odd places. He had dropped one dime and it rolled under a vending machine in Southern California and it had rolled out and hit his foot. Keith, the middle son, started finding dimes. One one was laying smack dab in the middle of his car seat when he got in. Terry was changing purses to bring a pink one to the funeral, a favorite color of Mary Ann's, and detected something rattling around in the bottom. A single dime.

By this time they were sharing the mystery of the dimes around. Otto was apparently the most blessed in the receipt of dimes. He found four in a pants pocket and when in his car he looked down on his lap and a dollar bill had come from nowhere. Not a dime, but he was impressed nevertheless by the connection to the 'dime effect.' Even leaving the funeral, Eric quizzed the hospice nurse who had attended Mary Ann in their home where she passed. "Funny you should mention that," her husband said. "I was taking a sack of coins from the AA meeting to the bank and I found a single dime on my lap in the car."

The officiator of the funeral thought these stories warranted a presentation and Terry and Eric got up and told of the 'dime effect' at the memorial service. Otto was pleased and Terry was choking up, but they only told part of the story. After the funeral others recounted experiencing the 'dime effect' too. Maybe all the stories will be recounted in one compilation some day, or I'll add them to this post in my SouthernOregonCafe blog as I hear of them. But the story just starts here. We all noticed some things that struck us as some kind of crack in our reality, our current dimension, as one speaker at the funeral said.

What did I notice? I've been a photographer and as such I couldn't help notice an awesomeness of relevance to Mary Ann's passing as we released pink balloons in her honor on her birthday just days ago. It was a breezy evening with pink and orange tints to the clouds and we had just finished a family pizza dinner out. We sang happy birthday to Mary Ann in the far end of the parking lot and set several dozen helium balloons with little notes from each of us into the air. They didn't go straight up, but at a angle toward the Siskyou  Mountains. And more accurately, right at the moon. I wished later that I had had our big camera with a telephoto lens to capture all those pink balloons with birthday wishes heading to parts of the galaxy unknown. That image is still in my head, however, and I think in the minds of many other family members as well.

What also struck me was the finale of the showing of the slide show of Mary Ann's life. The last picture was of her standing on a high bank on the Oregon coast looking out to sea at sunset. As the music, that was concluding with something like, "I'll love you forever" ended, a clap of thunder sounded just at that moment. The only one for weeks. It poured during the memorial service, but stopped and a double rainbow appeared at the grave site at the National Cemetery in Eagle Point. Otto is a veteran. Her body was laid to rest on the very summit of the hill at the Cemetery.

I'm just describing what I know to be true of the events surrounding Mary Ann's passing. However I will say that, with a renewed vigor to be a better man from the whole experience, I think it is the most wonderful testament to the life of a human being I personally have seen. Mary Ann was what you'd call 'a real hoot.' She was an organizer and maybe the mother hen of the AA on a broad scale. Not Nationally, but I do know that people from across the country have called Otto expressing their condolences. One speaker at the funeral said that "if she was on the Titanic, nobody would have died, and furthermore, there would have been snacks in the lifeboats."

From the moment of death, it's all about the ones left behind. We have no words ourselves for 'the great mystery' that surrounds us, except maybe for 'reading the red' in the Bible. The words of Jesus. He had it pegged in my opinion and I don't think anyone has ever argued with that. The fourty authors of the Bible have added their commentary and now others add their commentary to that commentary and it gets muddled up pretty good some times. But everyone knows there is a 'great mystery' at work in our lives, and hence a lot of people continue to be better people. Granted, a lot of folks ignore the signs. Look at how many people exceed the speed limits on the highways.

I try not to ignore signs. A lot of times you can't do much about it, like when I've had visions of my sons in combat. One I had was of a giant bubble of protection over my oldest and his buddies when they were going door to door in Iraq looking for 'bad guys.' He never got a scratch in two tours of duty and neither did he lose any of his men. I also had one of my Marine son when he was in Okinawa, Japan, that he was inundated by some kind of flood and that he was injured. A few months later a tsunami hit Japan and took out a nuclear reactor. Daniel was a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear specialist and was the radiation monitor on the convoy to northern Japan to lend a hand. He took in an excessive amount of radiation working on the ground there for four months and had to take the 'purple pill.' Not good. My stories like this can go on and on, and I've written about lots of them in the past, but I only lend them here as a punctuation point.

I try not to ignore urgings to help if I can, I've ignored too many of them in the past and who knows how much good I could have done. I'm thrilled to see the extended family of Mary Ann doing so well. Brandon, one of Brian's boys, is a Life Scout, in the Order of the Arrow, and heading soon to attain the top rank in the Boy Scouts of America. The attitudes all around are marvelous, I think a reflection of the great spirit of Mary Ann, as irreligious as she was. But I don't hold that against her and I don't think 'the great mystery' does either. With Mary Ann's passing, it seems like Creation has sped up a little bit, enough for those who loved her, to notice and carry on in her tradition of shining light in dark corners with a permanent light. She painted an often drab world in many hues of color that stays with us. I think she would want us to do the same and I think that's what it's all about.